Data Security for Medical Electronic Devices

2/28/2017

Introduction

For electronic devices and instruments used in medical care, precision, accuracy and reliability are critical. Any factors that might result in inaccuracy or even falsification should be eradicated to ensure the patients’ health benefits and avoid disputes that might involve litigation.

Though many medical apparatuses are stand-alone or connected only to an intranet with limited access, accidental infection with malware is still possible with unacknowledged plug-ins of USB or other dongles by hospital employees. Worse is that someone hacks into the system and makes changes to calibration values or tamper with patients’ medical records; the consequence is vital. Mindray is a global medical device developer and manufacturer based in Shenzhen of China, who has delivered numerous equipment and devices in patient monitoring and life support, medical imaging and in-vitro diagnostics to customers around the world, including nearly 110,000 medical institutes in China. Many of their products are embedded with Advantech’s System on a Module (SoM) and ensured by Advantech’s advanced security solution that protects system and data.

System Requirements

An OEM company like Mindray has to face tremendous demands for after-sale services including repair and maintenance, which is time, labor and cost consumptive. Therefore, a good security solution that protects their system from malware attacks or false programs will reduce the chance of system failures and save the company’s R&M resources. As functions of most medical devices and equipment are fixed to their dedicated purposes, a whitelisting mode of security will be more feasible and effective in delivering protection.

Solution

Application Control is McAfee’s most important whitelisting software which can help fix and consolidate the functions of the medical system by establishing a list of authorized programs and blocking unauthorized programs from running on the system, thereby helping to curb malware and hacks.

Benefits

Enhance stability, security and reliability of medical devices and instruments

Protects patients’ health and rights and immunes the hospital end users from disputes or helps them settle disputes with preserved data